Voltigeurs de la Garde Impériale - Silbermann No.25

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you another Silbermann sheet. This time No. 25, featuring the Voltigeurs de la Garde.

From what I've observed, this is probably the only Silbermann sheet you can still find in large numbers today. These voltigeurs were first printed sometime between 1854 and 1857 and were produced until 1870. As always with Gustave Adolphe Henri Silbermann's figures, these are printed with oil paints, which makes them look much more vibrant (and therefore more valuable) than competing products (e.g., Wentzel or Pellerin) from this period.

As with many surviving printed Silbermann sheets, this one also has a subsequent advertising imprint on the back.

The figures are 10 cm high.

Best regards,

Andreas

Imagerie Pellerin No.151 - French Infantry in Combat

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you a print sheet from Pellerin (Imagerie d'Epinal). It's numbered 151 and shows French soldiers from World War I (field uniform 1916-1918) in combat.

The figures are 8 cm tall, although the captain is a bit larger.

Best regards,

Andreas

Imageries Reunies Jarville-Nancy - 349 French Dragoons 1870

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you another print from Imagerie Jarville-Nancy. This one is numbered 349 and shows French dragoons from 1870. 

These prints date from the post-World War I period. The nine riders can be distinguished into an officer, two trumpeters, and six cavalrymen. The height of the figures, including the horse, is approximately 11.5 cm; the figure itself is approximately 7 cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

French Army WW1 - René Touret 200/35

 Hello,

Today I'd like to show you a sheet of soldiers printed by René Touret.

In "Paper Soldiers" by Edward Ryan, there's a short paragraph about the Touret publishing house. According to this, the company produced in "Châtellerault" and later in "La Châtre." My sheet, however, shows the inscription "Paris" and "Imprimé en France." According to a Google search, Touret was active there in the mid-1930s. I also know of another sheet of paper soldiers by Touret that also has "Paris" as the place of origin, but with the inscription "Imprimé en Belgique."

The small sheet I'm showing you today has an advertisement printed on the back. 

Otherwise, it features very simply drawn French soldiers in the uniforms of 1916 to 1918 and two small, scaled-down tanks that, with a lot of imagination, are meant to represent a Renault FT. The figures vary in size; the largest ones are approximately 7cm tall.

Best regards,

Andreas

Carabiniers - Silbermann No.9

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you one of my Silbermann plates. It's numbered 9 and depicts French Carabiniers. There are several variants of this plate; in addition to the one shown here with 12 riders, there's also a version with only 9 riders. There exist also different color variations of the trousers.

In the first row, you can see a brigadier (corporal), a sergeant, an officer, and a trumpeter. Below them are two rows of enlisted soldiers.

This print was first published in 1845. I suspect that the version shown here is the "later" version and was available until 1870.

At least, the subsequently printed advertisement on the back suggests this.

The figures scale is about 8 cm. From helmet peak to base, they measure approximately 12.5 cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

French Zouaves, Fischbach No.2

 Hello,

Today I'm showing you Plate No. 2 by Fischbach.

It depicts 27 French Zouaves in their post-1872 uniforms. The graphics were drawn by Alfred Touchemolin, and the plates were produced between 1873 and 1914.

In detail, you can see a total of four different officers, including one with a flag, three sergeants, two corporals, three clairons, and 15 soldiers.

The figures measure 9.5 cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

Imageries Reunies Jarville-Nancy - 343 Cent-Gardes 1870

Hello,

Today I'm showing you one of my French printed sheets. It's number 343 from "Imageries Reunies Jarville-Nancy" and shows Cent-Gardes from 1870. 

If I understood Edward Ryan correctly, these sheets were only printed after 1919. The coloring is unfortunately a bit odd and not very successful. The plate shows nine riders, an officer, two trumpeters, and six soldiers. The riders and horses are about 11 cm high, which corresponds to a figure size of about 8 cm.

Best regards,

Andreas

Artillerie de la Garde Impériale - Silberman No.26 (FAKE?)

 Hello,

While searching for old Silbermann plates, I found this one here in Italy and bought it. I was a bit skeptical from the start because the size of 26.8 cm x 16.2 cm would be much too small for a Silbermann print. Did the seller make a mistake? Did I just find proof that Silbermann also printed much smaller figures that were previously unknown?

Neither. When I finally held the sheet in my hands after a long wait, it turned out to be a modern "copy." A "copy" in terms of the image, but of course not in terms of the format. The figures are only about 5.5 cm high! They were printed using modern CMYK halftone printing. On the back is the well-known advertising imprint for "Cordonnerie Piron." On the originals, the printing ink had soaked through the thin paper, so the print was also slightly visible on the front. Here, however, this print on the front was shown as a halftone print!

What do I have here? Where does this sheet come from, who had it printed and for what purpose, and are there other motifs? If anyone can help me, I would be very grateful for an answer.

Best regards,

Andreas

Wargame Print - Just Paper Battles Crimea 1854 - pt.3

Hello,

Here's a little update on my 1854 French figures from "Just Paper Battles" (Wargame Print). You can find more details and information in part 1 – the most important points are that I've scaled the figures to 75mm (266%) and printed them on one side only.

These are the newly completed figures since the last update.

In this photo I have removed the fighting Chasseurs a pied so that you can see the figures in the back better.

In 1854, the French line infantry was still divided into fusiliers, grenadiers, and voltigeurs. This disappeared in 1868. In the picture on the left, you can see my first line infantrymen from a fusilier company.

The rider in red in the middle is a Spahi officer. And on the right are more Chasseurs a pied. This is the branch of the military I'm currently focusing on.

Here's a snapshot of all the soldiers I've completed so far in this project. There are only about 60 of them, but they're already taking up an incredible amount of space!

And another photo of the workbench. As you can see, there will be many chasseurs a pied in the next update - but not only! 😉

Best regards,

Andreas

Wargame Print - Just Paper Battles Crimea 1854 - pt.2

Hello,

Today I'm showing you a little update on my "Just Paper Battles" French in the Crimean War 1854 project. I've made some more figures for the collection. As before, they're scaled up to 75mm. This time, they're some Chasseurs à pied and the first Tirailleurs algériens.

Best regards,

Andreas

French Cuirassiers, Fischbach No.8

Hello,

Today I'm showing you print sheet number 8 from Fischbach (Strasbourg). 

It demonstrates the fine art of paper soldier production. Finely detailed printing, high register precision, vibrant oil colors, and the silver as a true metallic color! Unfortunately, this is the only Fischbach plate I've come across in the almost twenty years since I started buying paper soldiers. As far as I know, there were a total of ten different plates of the French Army in uniforms from 1872 onwards. The drawings of the figures were originally by Alfred Touchemolin. The figures are about 13 cm tall, and the riders are about 9 to 9.5 cm tall.

Best regards,

Andreas

Wargame Print - Just Paper Battles Crimea 1854 - pt.1

Hello,

Today I would like to introduce you to my new project. I have been looking for French figures from the Second Empire for a long time. Unfortunately, I have never managed to find beautiful historical printed sheets (for scanning) of them. The Epinal/Pellerin plates are still available from time to time. However, these are rather weak in color, and sheets from Silbermann or Fischbach are just as difficult to find as the very colorfully printed French ones from some German manufacturers. I briefly had the idea of ​​painting the figures myself - but that would take a lifetime. So I kept trying out different things and finally found a solution that I like.

The figures from "Wargame Print" from the series "Just Paper Battles Crimea 1854". These are 28mm figures available in PDF format for you to print yourself. The graphics were created by Ivan Golyzhenkov. You can buy these files, for example, at www.wargamevault.com.

The figures are available in different scales. In 6mm and 10mm, entire armies are available at once. In 28mm, you always get a branch of one of the nations. There are now different branches of the French, British, Turkish and Russian troops.

The figures are each designed with a front and back and are intended to be used as figures for wargaming games. When cutting them out, you should leave a little margin around the figures. This is also necessary because the front and back of some figures do not exactly coincide. However, I decided on a completely different form of representation.

In keeping with the motto "bigger is better", I tried to determine the maximum size of the figures. The aim was that the figures would not be pixelated, but that I could still print each of the figure groups on an A4 sheet of paper without any problems.

I liked the figure size of 7.5cm best, so my figures are printed at 266%. My figures also have no back (or rather, it only consists of one layer of black cardboard). So that the soldiers can stand, I mount a small wooden base on the back. 

I think the figures look very good in a group and I'm already looking forward to being able to present a whole "army". I think it's positive that all the figures are shown from the front. That way I don't have to decide whether my Frenchmen are marching from left to right or vice versa. 

The representation in field uniforms is also attractive, as such figures are usually shown in parade uniform. It's a shame that so far only the most important troops have appeared for the Battle of Alma in 1854. I'm writing "a shame" because, for example, there is no French cavalry yet (apart from a few Spahis as escorts for the staff).

 So I'm really hoping that a few more units (especially guards and cavalry) will appear. Although I had actually only considered the French at first, I have to admit that I'm now toying with the idea of ​​getting the other factions too... We'll see what the future brings. Now I have to do some gluing and cutting to make my French army from 1854 grow quickly.

Best regards,

Andreas